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How to Spot a Bogus News Site

Don’t be embarrassed: It’s easier than ever to be fooled by a “pink slime” site.

News Literacy Project

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Vetting news sources has never been more difficult than in today’s most complex information environment. With no shortage of websites and social media accounts claiming to be credible—often propagated by bad-faith actors—how can you tell what’s legit from what’s not? The crisis of local news outlets shutting down across the country has only exacerbated this problem, making it easier for nefarious forces to fill the void with “pink slime” sites with misleading names.

In the links below, we explore the problem but also offer resources to help you or your community avoid being fooled by sites and people masquerading as legitimate news outlets.

Beware Partisan ‘Pink Slime’ Sites That Pose as Local News

News Literacy Project: “Now-former Washington Post media columnist Margaret Sullivan writes about the crisis of local news deserts—areas that have lost outlets that, for many years, were trusted sources of journalism—and how partisan news sites disguised as legitimate have filled these voids to push partisan agendas with news-looking propaganda.”

Building Trust in an Age of Disinformation [LISTEN]

NLP: “Aspen Digital Executive Director Vivian Schiller discusses how businesses and media can build trust in a time rife with disinformation. Though she says we’ve never had as much high-quality journalism as we do now, there are consequences to an oversaturated market—some credible sources may be drowned out by those who don’t value accuracy or authenticity. This is why media players must be responsible for holding industry peers accountable and safeguarding reliable information sources.”

From our partners

Quiz: Is It Legit? Vetting News Sources for Credibility

NLP: “There are so many sources competing for your attention online, including partisan blogs and bogus sites posing as legitimate news organizations. It can be tough to know what to trust. Our quiz gives you a chance to explore what ‘credibility’ looks like and how to recognize it.”

Empowering Social Media Users to Assess Content Helps Fight Misinformation

NLP: “An experimental platform that puts moderation in the hands of its users shows that people do evaluate posts effectively and share their assessments with others.”

What’s the Best Way to Deal With a Flood of Misinformation? Maybe It’s Time for Some Deliberate Ignorance

NLP: “This article looks at how to critically ignore mis-, dis- or malinformation, with a chart showing the types of information, targeted outcomes, and behavioral and cognitive strategies for critical ignoring.”

The Rise and Rise of Partisan Local Newsrooms

NLP: “Some of the vacuums in news deserts have been filled by partisan, digital-first journalism. The danger is that readers are being served emotive, partisan, divisive news disguised as community reporting, conflating the two. You can read more about how audiences interact with these in the Tow Center study here.”

From our partners

Do You Have an Eye for Credibility?

NLP: “Confused about the difference between mis- and disinformation? We created a quick guide to help you identify each one in the wild, especially on social media, where both thrive thanks to short attention spans.”

How News Works

NLP: “With trust in news at an all-time low, it’s never been more important for newsrooms to be transparent about their work—and explain the decisions that the average consumer of their product might not initially understand. On this page, Trusting News provides highlights of newsrooms being exemplary in this practice.”

News Literacy Project

The News Literacy Project, a nonpartisan education nonprofit, is building a national movement to advance the practice of news literacy throughout American society, creating better informed, more engaged and more empowered individuals—and ultimately a stronger democracy. Learn more about its work at newslit.org.